Eli Benes<\/p>\n
MEQUON, Wi.- Winners of their last five, the Lakeshore Chinooks went into Tuesday, July 28 two games in the lead of the Great Lakes West. Looking to extend their win streak, the Chinooks faced Great Lakes opponent Traverse City Pit Spitters at Moonlight Graham Field.<\/p>\n
Scoring first in every game during their win streak, the Chinooks surrendered the first runs in Tuesday’s contest. In fact, through the first four and a half innings, the Chinooks were trailing by the largest deficit they’ve faced during the streak.<\/p>\n
After Ethan Guerra hit the Pit Spitters’ second home run of game in the top of the fifth, the Chinooks entered the bottom half of the inning down 5-0. Striking out just twice through four innings, the Chinooks offense made loud contact but were held hitless in the process.<\/p>\n
That was until the Chinooks scored for the first time in the fifth inning, with Vinny Spotofora hiting a RBI double to cut the Pit Spitters’ lead down to four. Following another Traverse City score in the sixth, the Chinooks loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the inning.<\/p>\n
In their next three at bats, the Chinooks scored four runs to tie the game thanks to RBI singles from Jack Counsell, David Mysza and Nick Allred. In the inning, the Chinooks brought nine batters to the plate.<\/p>\n
Tied after six innings, Casey Robinson entered his third inning of work. Robinson retired the side in the seventh, and followed up the clean inning by retiring the side again in the eighth and ninth inning.<\/p>\n
Allowing two earned runs in five innings of relief, Robinson took advantage of the opportunity in his first appearance on the mound since June 29. In between making appearances on the mound, Robinson had 42 at bats at the plate while also serving as the teams bullpen catcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him to be successful today is a credit to his preparation, his attention to the game flow and what\u2019s going on each and every single day,” Field Manager Brian Gregory said after Tuesday’s contest.<\/span><\/p>\n Failing to score after their four-run inning in the sixth, the Chinooks went into the bottom of the ninth inning tied with Traverse City 6-6. After getting the leadoff man on in the inning, the Chinooks weren’t able to walk the game off, sending the game into extras.<\/p>\n With Ryan Richter in to pitch for the Chinooks in the tenth, the Pit Spitters acted fast, taking the lead to open the inning on a Sean Martinez RBI single. With one out and a runner on third base, Richter recorded two strikeouts to hold Traverse City to their lone run in the inning.<\/p>\n Down for the first time since the sixth inning, the Chinooks hopes of extending the game looked dim as the first two batters recorded an out. Down to their last out, Mysza kept the game alive by sending a RBI single through the 3-4 hole.<\/p>\n In the next at bat, Mysza was caught stealing to end the inning and send the game into the 11th inning. In the top of the 11th, Richter induced a groundout and strikeout for two quick outs. Walking the next batter Wyatt Epple on four pitches, Runners stood on first and third base for Traverse City.<\/p>\n On the first pitch of the bat, Epple took off to second on a steal attempt. Recognizing the double steal attempt by the Pit Spitters, the Chinooks pulled of a design cutoff play, throwing out the lead runner JT Smith at home.<\/p>\n Needing just one run to win their sixth game in a row, the Chinooks responded by loading the bases with zero outs. With the Chinooks needing to put the ball in play, Traverse City kept the game alive by striking out Sam Meidenbauer and Aukai Kea.<\/p>\n With two outs, Joshua Chairez stepped up to the plate with a chance to walk off his second game in as many days. Watching the pitcher David Heefner strike out his last two batter’s faced, Chairez said he expected a first pitch fastball from Heefner in attempt to blow it by him.<\/p>\n Chairez got the fastball he was looking for and he did not miss, hitting the pitch sharply up the middle for a game-winning RBI single.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to these moments, I don\u2019t feel pressure,” Chairez said. “When you don\u2019t feel pressure, you feel loose and you just [have] to live in the moment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Winning back-to-back extra inning finishes, Gregory said the players are acquiring experiences for their baseball future.<\/p>\n \u201cAll it is, is stacking experiences. The more experiences that you acquire, you become a better baseball player,” Gregory said.<\/span><\/p>\n With the win, the Chinooks are 3-0 on their six-game homestand, with game four set for Wednesday, July 29 against the Pit Spitters at 6:05 pm CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eli Benes MEQUON, Wi.- Winners of their last five, the Lakeshore Chinooks went into Tuesday, July 28 two games in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":19357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n